Jenny Dolfen

Accidental brush development landscapes

Hey all, sorry for the silence - I seem to have hit a bit of a slump. I tried some traditional art a week or so ago and it was a complete disaster (I didn't even produce a failure, I gave up almost immediately because I just couldn't see what I was doing.) 

Which doesn't stop me from fiddling with new brushes, hee. And doing a leasurely, low-risk digital landscape is something immensely satisfying even while you're in art slump territory. I worked exactly like I would in watercolou...

Steampunk fish

So, here's the finished steampunk fish for Is! I love those guys, especially that anglerfish weirdo up there with his moustache. XD Enjoy!

And a warm welcome to new Patron, Iza! I hope you feel right at home. 

February suggestion art: Círdan looking at the sea

Here's the sketch for Juliette's suggestion! I think I haven't drawn Círdan since... 1992? 

Elrond (commission)

An Elrond sketch as commission for Paul! Now for finishing the steampunk fish; but first, surviving a Sunday at the in-laws. 🫣

The darndest cutest halfling

Liam O'Brien setting out to break my heart yeat again; three times in an episode. 

Sleeping Orym cradling the silent sending stone = 💔

CR thumbnail redraw, and steampunk fish coming along

Welcome to Isobel, Tara, Leona, and Ian! Great to have you! 😊

As you can see, I dived right into the steampunk fish (heh), which are a lot of fun! Some more detail work left on them. I decided to go for fewer accessories, as I didn’t really know where to put them XD

I also did a thumbnail redraw, which is very popular with the Critical Role fandom: They always have those hilarious cast thumbnails for their Yo...

Der wunderbare Widogast - finished (and a NSFW picnic on Discord)

So here's the finished dirt wizard for Emily! I had a lot of fun with the fiery oranges against drab earth-tones. 

Up next: Steampunk fish! (What did I get myself into? XD) 

I also did a new nsfw piece over on Discord: Will and Orym having a private picnic. With bran carrot muffins from Orym's mom, of course. 

If anyone (Squirrel and up) can't get into Discord, let me know!  2024-02-17 10:11:24 +0000 UTC View Post

My favourite moment with digital watercolours:

When all the colours are roughly blocked in on their separate layers and I have colour schemes and contrasts down pat, and I can switch off my brain and just bask in colour and texture for the next few hours. 🥰

Der wunderbare Widogast - Lineart

This took ages (and I survived four DMing sessions in eight days - yes, because my D&D club at school was AGAIN today, but at least thirteen-year-old kids are totally happy with a little flick from "One Shot Wonders"!) but the lineart is done! And I'm very, very happy with it.  I'll upload the lineart for Jackalopes and up in a bit! =) 

Caleb Art Nouveau - lineart in progress

Welcome to three new Patrons - Areingwe, Sammy, and Heliodor! Glad to have you here! <3 

Been busy with the Art Nouveau piece of Caleb! Redid the pose and figure about three times and ended up going with zero reference in the end, which somehow worked best. I find that, after two failed attempts with ref, the third without is always a revelation. Pity it never works from the get-go. ;) 

Oops, my hand slipped. =D

Forced myself not to overthink stuff and be bold with colours, and managed to get myself out of a little rut I was starting to get into again. 

I also survived two of my three DMing sessions and have a bit of air for the coming days! The last one is my Spelljammer campaign, which is the most relaxed of the three as it's got the greatest group dynamic. 

Steampunk fish and a new and improved Orym (spoiler!)

First off, welcome to new patron, Catherine! 

Second sketch in the current round of commissions: a steampunk lionfish, with some anglerfish in the margins. What fresh nightmare, pray, are anglerfish?! I looked them up on Wikipedia and boy, the females carry their males around as tiny parasites? Yikes!

Today's / yesterday’s Critical Role episode sent me scrambling f...

Der Wunderbare Widogast - sketch

A whole bunch of new peeps! Welcome Tay, Tara, A Nonny Mouse, Jamie, Areingwe, and Bobbie! I hope the Discord link is still working for y'all; let me know if it isn't!

Here's a first sketch of one of the recent batch of commissions! Caleb in an Art Nouveau style for Emily. I decided to go all-out with the turn of the century carnnival show poster. XD Thanks for this extremely fun commis...

Tentatively opening commissions

First things first - I know that a lot of you have been waiting for commissions, and have been asking me about certain projects, but I can only take on very few, and in a very restricted manner, so I can only hope you'll understand that. <3 Right now, I do NOT see myself doing classic commissions - i. e., you give me your characters, ref pictures, description of several paragraphs, and I get to work - ever again. My eyes have been a nightmare since mid-October, and I can hardly see clearly...

Pengolodh working at his window overlooking the bay of Alqualonde

A warm welcome to several new folks! Hello Pedro, Mari, Middi, and Jamie! 

So, Troels, your tenacity paid off! Here's your oft-suggested sketch of Pengolodh for this month's suggestion box. =D

I'm going to make some sliiiight changes to the suggestion process for the next round; namely,  more openness to interpretation (not quite as open as the Patreontober prompts, but slightly less inherently elaborate...

"The touch of divinity" finished!

"You smell of the touch of divinity. That makes you… enticing!" 

I didn’t change that much between now and the end of last night’s livestream, but somehow, there were still two more hours of work involved. Thanks all of you who tuned in! 

Here's the beautiful little man finished. Procreate with gold leaf textures (all digital). 

Live chat/Livestream!

We just tried it out and it works! =D Join me in one hour (6 pm CET) to chat, and watch me work on this painting of Orym! I'll be happy to demonstrate all sorts of stuff, so don't hesitate to ask. 

Here's the link to Discord if you haven't logged in yet: https://www.patreon.com/posts/discord-link-96658600

I'll be streaming in the "General" section, in the bottom channel now named "Live...

Touch of divinity - lineart

Welcome to new supporter, Inja! <3 

I'm finding another nice aspect about CSP: It allows me to do such a clean sketch that the lineart can stay on the same layer, just refining, cleaning up a bit, and strengthening the lines.

I've also thought about my rough idea about a D&D/RPG colouring book again, and need some thoughts about what to do with the lines. I know that, when you want to colour digitally, an ideal approach is to have clean black lines that are colour-fill...

The touch of divinity

Yes, sometimes I still draw Orym with his clothes on. 😁 The title is a quote from Nana Morri, Fearne's hag grandmother, who sensed some divine eyes on Orym. She didn’t specify whose they were, but it’s probably safe to say it’s the Wildmother's as well as the Raven Queen's. 

A warm welcome to Roseanna, Katie, and Kate! 🎉🥳 And thanks to all of you who upgraded their pledge in the last few days! It's great to see some ...

Falling in love II

The other weird thing about falling in love: you spend time with the one you're crushing on, having a great time, and you think you’re the only one with butterflies. 😁

Also, Jenny on 31st December: Hey, I found this new way to do finished-looking sketches!
Jenny on 1st January: *promptly forgets about it again*

I remembered. 😁

CSP is quickly becoming an immense help in my ...

Falling in love

I don’t know about you, but thinking back to the earliest days of falling in love, the feeling that it most associated with it is PANIC. 😂

This is from my headcanon of Will and Orym being in love with each other long before confessing their love. Will shows it by wanting to be close to Orym. Orym shows it by totally freaking out whenever Will is close. Poor boy.  

You'll note that Orym now has body hair. Wonder how Instagram will take it. I hope it reduces the paedobear ...

Giving Discord another go!

The Discord server is open to all Squirrels and up!

It's been almost two and a half years since I let it go to sleep, but I know my way around Discord a lot better now - and I realised it was the easiest and most rule-conforming way of posting NSFW art! I know Patreon cracks down pretty ...

Discord link!

Here we go! Can't wait to see you there. Join the Discord server to chat, ask questions, see NSFW art, and/or look over my shoulder in scheduled livestreams! 

Sketches (plus some seriously NSFW)

Welcome to three new folks already this month: Melinda, Katharina, and Kiwi! So glad you’re with us!

I'm in the middle of an art slump, with my eyes more or less cooperating but me just hating every sketch that drops on my canvas. My first enthusiasm with Clip Studio Paint has worn off as I’m reminded how much of a love-hate relationship I have with reference, heh.

The sketch at the top was me trying to figure out what it might look like when Orym does his typical move of dart...

Wedding day

First finished art based on CSP models! Massive thanks to Rae, who helped me find head models as well, which are at least as useful as body models for the poses and  angles you see here. Will in particular would have driven me crazy without the head model. 

Done mostly with the Texture Galore set, plus a couple of new brushes I created on the go. (As usual.) The lineart was done with the same "sketch to finish"  brush I shared  a week ago.

I’m slightly wary o...

"Help!"

I hope you’re not tired of me waxing poetic over CSP yet?

This is a scene I really wanted to draw for over a year because it really broke my heart - Orym, freshly resurrected by Fearne, stumbles off shouting for help after being told that Laudna is dead and that they flipped a coin for his and Laudna's life. I imagine that moment brought him back to another time in his life when he was just as helpless. 

I knew exactly what I wanted that scene to look like, and just didn't ...

Painting tutorial, brushes bundle, and more fun with CSP

I finally tied together the tutorial for my Texture Galore watercolour set! Not narrated, as that’s such an insane amount of work, but with in-depth tips at normal speed so you can see exactly what happens. 

Gumroad (one of the best places for digital brushes and such) just did something I’ve just been waiting for: they allow sellers to bundle their products without having to rearrange uploads (which is a major pain!) So now there's a bundle with all my brushes and<...